Automation and humans inextricably linked

As we rolled into 2020 with an unemployment rate of 3.5%, our warehouse and distribution center operations were experiencing one of the tightest labor markets the United States has ever experienced. The lack of enough engaged recruits for our open positions had become the “silent crisis” facing a vast number of businesses, posing a serious threat to the continued momentum of e-commerce fulfillment operations.

In a matter of weeks this spring, record low unemployment numbers were flipped upside down, presenting what many in our market believed would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new workforce by promoting essential, stable and well-paid careers in materials handling and supply chain to those workers who had been displaced.

I was among them, thinking that the floodgates would swing open and our labor drought would finally be quenched. At press time, we’re finding that it’s more of a trickle than an outright flood; however we are seeing some forward momentum in the right direction.

In March, Amazon announced that it was hiring 175,000 new workers to help run its fulfillment and delivery network. By mid-May, the company had reportedly filled all of those positions.

By all indications, our warehouse and DC operations will be able to leverage this fresh crop of entry-level and experienced workers, and ideally we’ll be able to do it not only through the promise of a well-paid, stable opportunity, but with a company culture that’s driven by automation and technology designed to offer safety, support, productivity and engagement.

This month in Modern, our edit team explores a few areas that illustrate the inexorable link between human beings and automation—and how the two, when tied together with purpose, can yield significant benefits as we ramp back up and out of the pandemic.

“If there is light at the end of the tunnel, it’s that some potential solutions are coming to market from materials handling technology providers that will greatly increase the safety and well-being of a workforce eager to get back to it,” says executive editor Bob Trebilcock.

Starting on page 14, Trebilcock offers us a rundown of a few solutions for plants and DCs around screening, workplace social distancing and contact tracing should an associate test positive. “These are all worth investigating as you look to create your own safe working environment,” he adds.

Not only do you want to be safe, but in able to maintain a new workforce, your operational culture will need to understand that automation is not just about the equipment, it’s about enabling a workforce to improve productivity on the way to setting new goals and achieving incentives that keeps them engaged for the long term.

This month, contributing editor Gary Forger (page 20) does a terrific job defining how important it is to make that cultural connection. “Too many don’t understand the impact that this change has on people, how they work and interact,” he says. “Investment in those new behaviors and culture is as important as the capital outlay for the systems.”